Call to Confession
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation—the old has gone, and the new has come. Yet we often have difficulty living in that new reality, clinging to the old ways that have passed. When we confess our sin, we make room for God’s truth to dwell in us, clearing the path for a new way of life. Before God, with the people of God, let us confess our faults and our failings. Let us pray.
Prayer of Confession
God, your faithfulness is for all generations, yet we often have a hard time living with you in this generation.
We love to look back, idolizing the past while forgetting we wear rose-colored glasses. We love our anxiety about the future, fretting about our individual long term security. We love our ideas about you, our lofty words and abstract concepts that do not affect our everyday lives.
We confess that it is rare for us to trust, to love, to follow with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Forgive us when we trap you in our memories or our intellects. Forgive us when we forget that you are also right here, right now, with a calling and a promise for us in this time and this place.
~silence~
Gracious God,
speak into our wilderness again, that we may learn to be your people. Amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness
The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. From before the beginning until long beyond our imagination, God’s love endures. Know that you are forgiven, loved and free. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL.
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